Catholic New World

Newspaper for the Archdiocese of Chicago

September 29 - October 12, 2013

Pope: Focus on morality can obscure Gospel message

By Francis X. Rocca

Catholic News Service

Vatican City — In a lengthy
and wide-ranging interview
with one of his Jesuit
confreres, Pope Francis spoke
with characteristic frankness
about the perils of overemphasizing
Catholic teaching on sexual
and medical ethics; the reasons
for his deliberate and consultative
governing style; and his highest
priority for the church today.

The pope’s remarks appeared in
an interview with Jesuit Father
Antonio Spadaro, editor of the
Italian journal La Civilta Cattolica.
The interview, conducted in
August, was the basis for a
12,000-word article published
Sept. 19 in the U.S. magazine
America, and simultaneously in
other Jesuit publications in other
languages.

According to the editor of
America, Jesuit Father Matt Malone,
Pope Francis personally reviewed
the article and approved
its publication.

“We cannot insist only on issues
related to abortion, gay marriage
and the use of contraceptive methods,”
the pope said in the interview,
noting that he had been
“reprimanded” for failing to speak
often about those topics. “It is not
necessary to talk about these issues
all the time.

“The dogmatic and moral teachings
of the church are not all
equivalent,” the pope added. “The
church’s pastoral ministry cannot
be obsessed with the transmission
of a disjointed multitude of doctrines
to be imposed insistently.

“Proclamation in a missionary
style focuses on the essentials, on
the necessary things,” he said.
“We have to find a new balance;
otherwise even the moral edifice
of the church is likely to fall like a
house of cards, losing the freshness
and fragrance of the Gospel.

“The proposal of the Gospel
must be more simple, profound,
radiant. It is from this proposition
that the moral consequences then
flow.”

The pope reaffirmed one of his
major themes: the need for mercy
rather than judgment when approaching
sin.

“The thing the church needs
most today is the ability to heal
wounds and to warm the hearts of
the faithful. It needs nearness,
proximity,” he said.

“The church sometimes has
locked itself up in small things, in
small-minded rules. The most important
thing is the first proclamation:
Jesus Christ has saved you,”
the pope said.

“The confessional is not a torture
chamber,” he said, “but the
place in which the Lord’s mercy
motivates us to do better.

“Those who today always look
for disciplinarian solutions, those
who long for an exaggerated doctrinal
‘security,’ those who stubbornly
try to recover a past that no
longer exists — they have a static
and inward-directed view of
things,” Pope Francis said. “In
this way, faith becomes an ideology
among other ideologies.”

How he governs

Pope Francis also spoke extensively
about his approach to
church governance.

“Many think that changes and
reforms can take place in a short
time,” the pope said. “I believe
that we always need time to lay
the foundations for real, effective
change. And this is the time of
discernment.

“Sometimes discernment instead
urges us to do precisely
what you had at first thought you
would do later. And that is what
happened to me in recent
months,” he added, though without
specifying the action in question.

The pope described the evolution
of his governing style, starting
with his appointment at age
36 as superior of the Argentine
province of the Jesuits.

“My authoritarian and quick
manner of making decisions led
me to have serious problems and
to be accused of being ultraconservative,”
Pope Francis said,
adding, “I have never been a
right-winger. It was my authoritarian
way of making decisions
that created problems.”

Later, as archbishop of Buenos
Aires, he adopted another approach,
meeting often with his
auxiliary bishops.

“I believe that consultation is
very important,” the pope said,
noting his establishment as pope
of the so-called Group of Eight
advisory panel of cardinals. “I
want to see that this is a real, not
ceremonial consultation.”

With respect to the Vatican bureaucracy,
whose reform he has
made a clear priority of his sixmonth
old pontificate, Pope Francis
pointed to the need to devolve
more authority to local churches.

Some Vatican offices “run the
risk of becoming institutions of
censorship,” he said. “It is amazing
to see the denunciations for
lack of orthodoxy that come to
Rome. I think the cases should be
investigated by the local bishops’
conferences, which can get valuable
assistance from Rome. These
cases, in fact, are much better
dealt with locally.

“The Roman congregations are
mediators; they are not middlemen
or managers.”

Shared authority

In matters of belief rather than
governance, Pope Francis said
that the pope and bishops share
authority with the laity.

“The church is the people of
God on the journey through history,”
he said. “Thinking with the
church, therefore, is my way of
being a part of this people. And
all the faithful, considered as a
whole, are infallible in matters of
belief.”

The pope quickly added that
“we must be very careful not to
think that this ‘infallibilitas’ of all
the faithful I am talking about in
the light of Vatican II is a form of
populism. No; it is the experience
of ‘holy mother the hierarchical
church,’ as St. Ignatius called it,
the church as the people of God,
pastors and people together.”

Among the other topics the
pope addressed in the interview
was the challenge of finding a
more visible role for women in a
church with an all-male priesthood.

“I am wary of a solution that
can be reduced to a kind of ‘female
machismo,’ because a
woman has a different makeup
than a man,” he said. “The church
cannot be herself without the
woman and her role. The woman
is essential for the church. Mary, a
woman, is more important than
the bishops. I say this because we
must not confuse the function
with the dignity.”

Pope Francis, whose simple
way of celebrating Mass has attracted
criticism from traditionalist
Catholics, also took up the
controversial subject of liturgy.

Pope Benedict XVI’s 2007 decision
to lift most restrictions on
celebrating the Tridentine Mass
was “was prudent and motivated
by the desire to help people who
have this sensitivity,” Pope Francis
said. “What is worrying,
though, is the risk of the ideologization
of the (old Mass), it’s exploitation.”

The pope also said that the liturgical
reform that followed in the
wake of the 1962-1965 Second
Vatican Council is “absolutely irreversible.”

In comments about the interview
Cardinal George said, “In
his beautiful reflection published
in English in America magazine,
Pope Francis begins by identifying
himself as a sinner, and so are
we all. The first thing a sinner
striving for conversion needs to
hear is that God loves him or her.
Mercy is love eager to forgive.

“That has become the leitmotif
of Pope Francis’ teaching, and it
puts into perspective the demands
of discipleship expressed and
clarified in the Church’s established
doctrinal and moral teaching.
For who the pope is, we
should all be grateful. From how
he teaches the truths of the
Catholic faith, we can all profit.”